Pirate King - Ateez x original female character

Chp 5: Promise

While Hongjoong was convinced, he wasn't quite happy about it. Breaking into Marineford was a death wish in and of itself. Leaving, alive, with a prisoner was nigh impossible. He was stressed. Upset. A Little panicked. I'm not particularly proud to say that even as first mate I didn't do much to calm him down. I was still mad at him.

We sat in his quarters, pouring over maps and logs, trying to find the best way onto the island. We eventually came up with a plan. Was it shoddy at best? Yes. Was it incredibly dangerous? Also yes. Was it the best we had? Unfortunately.

"Seonghwa... can you please not be mad at me before we go off to our death?"

I sighed heavily, "I'll be honest, I'm a little mad at you still... but I love you always."

Hongjoong reached over the table and took my hand in his, "Thank you."

—-

The floor of the cell was cold beneath me. I shivered lightly, alone. My only blessing that they never sent me to impel down. Security was surprisingly light for someone receiving a death sentence. I was only getting a death sentence because I didn't do what they hired me for, but obviously they couldn't tell the public that the marines hired an assassin. The security was light because they were well aware what my talents were and what they weren't. I was very hard to catch, very quiet, very skilled at quick kills and covert missions. I wasn't built for multiple person face to face combat. I was in trouble when cornered, and useless when caught. To be fair, it's not like I was trying very hard to escape. It felt like a roundabout suicide. I wasn't even mad at Hongjoong, despite my outburst, I really understood. Truly. I would have done the same. I was pulled from my musing by a heavy thud, and the walls shaking. The sound was loud. Almost like an explosion. Dust fell from the ceiling onto my head.

I stood up and walked over to the seastone bars of my cell, being careful not to touch. I tried to get my singular guards attention, "Hey! What the hells going on out there?"

Of course, he refused to speak to me. They supposedly were getting ready to remove my head from my body out there, but that didn't sound like anything that would need to be done for an execution. Today was the day though. The day i met my parents again, and it was gonna be broadcasted, in exciting gory detail. I hoped with all my heart that none of the guys watched.

As I waited, I grew more and more concerned. I heard loud footsteps running down the halls, people yelling, and those booms. It was sounding more and more like cannon fire.

It happened fast. I was walking back to the bars to try to get the guards attention again when all at once, the door quite literally shattered. It was metal of some kind, but it shattered. A large sheet of metal flung itself across the room, embedding itself in the skull of the guard. The force of the impact flung his now lifeless body against the opposite wall. His blood spattered my face and silver hair. It caught me off guard for a second and then I was backed up against the wall, wondering what the intruders would do with a prisoner.

Then I heard it. A very familiar voice, "Pepper?!" Yunho called out. He walked up in front of the cell with San and Seonghwa with him. They must have seen me pushed up against the wall, blood covering my face and chest, and freaked out a bit.

Seonghwa pushed forwards, sticking his arms through the seastone bars, not caring about their effect on him as a devil fruit user, "Pepper, Jesus.. Are you alright?"

I immediately threaded my arms through the bars with him, we both sank to our knees, our strength seemingly sucked from our bones. The effect of the seastone. We held each other as best we could through the bars, "Its not my blood, i promise" i try to reassure him, "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"We came back for you," Yunho said softly.

"But why?"

San looked around nervously, "We can talk about it later, first, we need to figure out how to get you out of there."

"I'll blow the door open," Yunho suggested.

"The blast it would take to break through seastone would literally flatten the building and kill all of us..." I run my hands through seonghwas hair, tears welling in my eyes, "The fact that you guys came back at all is already too much... you need to leave. There's going to be an admiral arriving for the execution... you need to leave before he gets here."
Seongwha shook his head, "No... no way pepper..." he put his hands on either side of my face, fingers resting lightly in my hair, "I promise we will never leave you behind again."

The tears finally fell at that, mixing with the blood on my face. "Okay... so just leave for now. Just from this room. They wont stop the execution for anything, it would make them look weak. Once I'm off the cell, take me then."

"I'm not leaving you!" Seonghwa protested, his grip on me through the bars tightened.

I made eye contact with san, he knew what i was asking. He grabbed Seonghwa firmly by the shoulder and pulled him back away from the bars. I fell back too, regaining my strength, "Seonghwa, it's a better plan than waiting here and dying or blowing the whole place up and dying."

Seonghwas eyes were pained when he looked back at me, but he nodded, "I'm not leaving you here Pepper..." he said gently before they bolted out the destroyed door, leaving me to wait for my escort to my own execution.